On a cold, but sunny day, Frome put in a truly professional performance, dominating from start to finish showing off the depth and talent that is amongst the squad.
After a reverse fixture to forget back in the January, the Robins looked to set things right, helping themselves create a gap between Wimborne and Cribbs who faced against each other today.
The Lambs, would have been well up for the game, having won four of their last five games, they came in to the game on good form and would have been looking to keep up their push towards the play-offs.
From the off, Frome controlled the game and created all the chances, they came thick and fast and in the first ten minutes, Kane Simpson, Zak Drew and James Ollis all came close to opening the scoring.
Man of the Match Jon Davies on a day that saw him awarded with a trophy to mark 250 appearances for the club, came close minutes later, when a cross that was flicked on by Drew, found him, but unfortunately his attempted over kick was sliced wide.
Davies was again the centre of all the action when Tavistock found themselves breaking on the half way line with a two against one counter attack, but Davies appeared out of nowhere to perform a perfectly timed sliding tackle stopping their advance.
More chances came through Simpson, Drew and Ollis, all beating players and finding space to have shots, but the opening goal just wasn’t coming. Simpson won the ball back on the edge of the Tavistock area, finding himself denied by keeper Aaron Dearing who made a brilliant double save putting the ball out for a corner kick.
This is where Frome got themselves in to a deserved lead, 32 minutes in, the resulting set-piece was delivered into a dangerous area, pinballed around, cleared off of the line, before being smashed home by Pierce Mitchell.
Several more chances came and went before and after half time with no avail, but also no reply from Tavistock; their ‘keeper making some excellent saves to keep the score at only 1-0.
Tavistock started to look like they were getting themselves together, with play starting to edge towards Kyle Phillips’ goal, but the two-goal cushion came in the 64th minute, when Drew found himself with the ball out wide, spinning past two players before playing the ball across goal for Simpson to finish coolly.
Sam Meakes then entered the fray and had an immediate impact 82 minutes in, getting on the end of a loose ball, holding off the defenders and slotting calmly past the ‘keeper, showing the coolness and composure we’ve seen from him time and time again.
It was 85 minutes before Tavistock had a shot on target when substitute Daniel Koita found himself face to face with Phillips, slotting past him into the bottom corner.
The effort, determination and patience of Frome, drilled into them by Danny Greaves and his staff, was non-more obvious than in today’s performance, leaving the Dodge top of the league as we round the corner to the home straight of the season.
It’s back to mid-week action Wednesday as we face Larkhall, they’ve been a thorn in the side of a lot of teams this season, so it will definitely be a tough game.
Match report and live updates by Ben Hollis.
Once more our trusty scribe gives a very rounded review of today’s game.
Frome were indeed the better side throughout and could and should have taken revenge for the 6 - goal mauling at Tavi.
We missed so many chances today but also give credit to the Tavi keeper, Dearing, who brought off many fine saves to keep his team afloat.
It was an 8/10 team performance. I personally thought that ‘The Bruiser’ (Pearce), was MOM, for his goal and no nonsense defending - 9/10. Ollie as always was a solid 8/10 and Monksie and Riggie did a splendid job in the middle. - 8.5 / 10! Well done Meaksie for another Solskaresque goal from the bench.
The official crowd of 414, doesn't make any sense. The lowest…